This invention relates to a cloth-laying machine and is more particularly concerned with a machine of the type which comprises a laying carriage which is movable backwards and forwards over a laying surface and carries a cloth supply which is to be laid out.
The carriage comprises, in the region of one end thereof, as seen in the direction of movement of the carriage and laterally of the cloth supply, an unwinding roller which is arranged to draw cloth from the supply and to lay it on the laying surface.
In use, the unwinding roller will be provided with a rotatable drive means so that the cloth web depending from the cloth supply is engaged over the unwinding roller and a closely adjacent deflecting roller is provided beneath which the cloth web is to engage before it engages over the unwinding roller. The laying carriage is provided with a movable driving member to grip the cloth web initially depending freely from the cloth supply, the driving member being arranged to feed the freely hanging end into the gap between the deflecting roller and the unwinding roller.
The cloth supply usually consists of a bale or reel, through which is pushed a winding shaft which extends parallel to the unwinding roller and the ends of which are moved in bearings of a supporting device on the laying carriage. The unwinding roller is preferably capable of being driven in synchronism with the transporting mechanism of the laying carriage, the driven unwinding roller causing the withdrawal of the cloth web from the cloth supply in order to produce a tension-free laying out of the cloth web on the laying surface. The deflecting roller serves to produce the necessary wrapping angle of the cloth web on the unwinding roller.
A cloth laying machine of a different type is known from German Auslegeschrift No. 1932508. No deflecting roller is provided in this machine and the unwinding roller provided with a rotational drive means is not disposed laterally of the cloth supply, but bears from beneath against the cloth bale at the bottom surface line of the bale forming the cloth supply. The cloth web to be unwound from the cloth bale extends through the gap which is disposed between the unwinding roller and the cloth bale and then travels in the form of a loose C-shape loop onto a conveyor belt which is situated beneath the unwinding roller and which is extended by a separate laying-out conveyor belt for laying out the cloth on the laying surface. The initially mentioned problem of producing a wrapping angle on the unwinding roller and thus the arrangement of a driving member for introducing the depending cloth web into the gap which is situated between a deflecting roller and the unwinding roller does not arise with this known construction since the premise with the latter is that the end of the cloth web initially adheres on the cirumference of the cloth bale, and with rotation of the latter, passes with its edge through the gap between the cloth bale and unwinding roller and is then detached from the bale under the action of a fan, so as then to reach the conveyor belt which is disposed underneath the unwinding roller and with formation of the loose C-shaped loop which embraces the unwinding roller in a large arc and then to be carried away. With a large number of types of cloth or materials which have to be laid out, more especially when these have a smooth surface or a comparatively stiff consistency, the end of the cloth web does not remain adhering to the cloth bale, but already hangs down before reaching the unwinding roller situated beneath the cloth bale onto the conveyor belt which continues the transporting of the cloth web. More particularly with a decreasing cloth supply, difficulties arise in such a case, and these difficulties require the provision of control or braking devices in order to compensate the changes of the cloth bale circumference in proportion to the conveyor belt speed.
A cloth laying machine of the type as initially referred to is known from German Auslegeschrift No. 1635423. In the latter, the driving member consists of a rail which is approximately L-shaped in cross-section and is mounted to be pivotable about a shaft extending parallel to the unwinding roller and on one end of the laying carriage, which rail is movable with its free edge, carrying with it the cloth web hanging down from above and from beneath between the unwinding roller and the deflecting roller. The result obtained by this construction is that a cloth web which is hanging down on that side, opposite the two rollers, of the cloth supply which always has a certain width in the direction of travel of the laying carriage, cannot be gripped by the rail, since the path of movement thereof is only very restricted and is only provided in the region of one end of the laying carriage. The cloth web in this case thus has to be pushed by hand into the gap between the two rollers.